Running Dell applications in a Docker containers

1. Running Dell applications
in Docker containers
Docker Austin Meetup Sep 3, 2015
Jose De la Rosa
Dell Linux Engineering

2. Dell - Internal Use - Confidential
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OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA)
In-house application used to manage and monitor the
health of Dell PowerEdge servers.
1. RPM-based (for RHEL, CentOS and SLES).
• Problem: No debs for Ubuntu or Debian.
2. Installation is straight-forward.
• Problem: Installs 55-60 RPMs.
• Problem: Removal is not straight-forward.
• Problem: Upgrading can be quite a hassle.

3. Dell - Internal Use - Confidential
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Can we Dockerize OMSA?
Not an ideal application to run in a container:
• Many services (not just one)
• Needs access to host’s hardware (requires privileged mode)
• Has dependencies on kernel modules (big no no)
• Too big (about 500 MB)
But nevertheless…

4. Dell - Internal Use - Confidential
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Implementation
Ubuntu / Debian
Docker Engine
CentOS 7
OMSA
PowerEdge Server

5. Dell - Internal Use - Confidential
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Results
It worked! About 95% functionality with a couple known
issues (we’re working on them)
1. Customers can now use it on Ubuntu & Debian
(though not recommended for Production yet)
2. Installation / Upgrade / Removal now as easy as
“docker pull, docker run, docker stop and docker rm”.
(Not just on Ubuntu & Debian, but RHEL, CentOS and
SLES)

6. Dell - Internal Use - Confidential
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Moral of the story
• We proved that a legacy (and somewhat bloated)
application can be “containerized” with minimum
effort and without modifying a single line of code.
• If we can containerize OMSA, then we can
containerize anything!

7. Dell - Internal Use - Confidential
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Are you a Dell customer and use OMSA?
http://linux.dell.com/docker
We’re looking for feedback